Playyard hinge

Abstract

A hinge positioned at the intermediate extents of the adjacent rail components to hold such components in an aligned orientation including a saddle with a central button aperture, interior plate apertures and exterior end apertures with associated rail pins for pivotally coupling the saddle and the adjacent interior ends of associated rail components, a pair of hinge plates each with a plate pin coupling the upper end of each plate to a plate aperture of the saddle, each plate having an opening extending therethrough, the plates urged away from each other, a liftable block with an elongated slot and with an associated block pin for slidably coupling the block to the saddle, the button having inclined bearing surfaces on their edges and an inwardly facing projection located at the adjacent interior edge of each adjacent rod segment, each projection having an upper curved surface and a lower planar surface receivable by the bearing opening.

What is claimed as being new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent of the United States is as follows: 
     
       1. A collapsible playyard comprising, in combination: a frame with an upper rail assembly positionable in a horizontal orientation when in a deployed orientation and formed of two side rails and two end rails with each of the rails being formed of two rail components having interior ends and exterior ends, the interior ends being pivotally coupled with respect to each other for movement between the deployed orientation wherein the rails are horizontally disposed in a common plane and a collapsed orientation wherein the rails are vertically disposed and parallel, the frame also including a lower rail assembly positionable in a horizontal orientation beneath the upper rail assembly when in a deployed orientation, the frame also including four vertically extending corner rails coupling the upper rail assembly and the lower rail assembly, the playyard also having fabric components between the upper and lower rail assemblies and between the corner rails;   a hinge positioned at the intermediate extents of the end rails and side rails to allow movement of the associated rail components between the horizontal deployed orientation and the collapsed orientation, each hinge including;   a saddle in a generally inverted U-shaped configuration with opposed parallel faces and a coupling region thereabove, the opposed faces each having a pair of laterally spaced block apertures with block pins therebetween, a pair of laterally spaced rail apertures with rail pins therebetween, a pair of laterally spaced locking lever apertures with lever pins therethrough and a pair of laterally spaced generally horizontal guide slots with guide pins therethrough;   a pair of normally vertically-oriented locking levers, each locking lever having a central aperture for receiving a lever pin, each locking lever having a lower end with a facing curved follower face and an upper end with an aperture receiving a guide pin and with an arcuate facing interior surface at the interior region thereof;   a coil spring having a central horizontal axis with an exterior surface received within the facing recesses of the levers and with ends extending downwardly into contact with the exterior faces of the levers tending to move the lower ends of the levers inwardly and the upper ends of the levers outwardly;   a liftable block with generally vertically extending slots adjacent lateral edges thereof receiving the block pins and adapted to allow the raising and lowering of the block between a lower locking deployed orientation and an upward unlocking collapsed orientation, the block also having a central region with cam surfaces adapted to contact the curved surfaces at the lower ends of the levers whereby movement of the block and the cam surfaces upwardly will urge the lower ends of the levers outwardly and the upper ends of the levers inwardly; and   facing projections located at the adjacent interior ends of each adjacent rail component, each projection having an upper curved surface and a lower planar surface with an arcuate recess adapted to receive a guide pin when in the deployed locked orientation with the upper curved surfaces of the projections adapted to move the guide pins inwardly toward each other when moving the hinge from the stowed orientation to the locked orientation with the guide pin movement being guided by the guide slots whereby the positioning of the block in its lower orientation will allow the lower ends of the levers to be in proximity to each other and urged in such orientation by the coil spring but whereby upward movement of the hinge from the stowed orientation to the deployed orientation will move the guide pins and upper ends of the levers outwardly through the force of the upper curved surfaces of the projections to allow the positioning of the guide pins in the lower recesses of the projections and whereby, during collapsing, upward movement of the block will urge the lower ends of the levers outwardly and the upper ends of the levers inwardly to thereby separate the guide pins from the recesses of the projections and allow the projections and interior ends of the rails to move downwardly to collapse the hinge and frame of the playyard.   
     
     
       2. A hinge for a collapsible playyard comprising: a saddle in a generally inverted U-shaped configuration with opposed parallel faces and a coupling region thereabove, the opposed faces each having a pair of laterally spaced block apertures with block pins therebetween, a pair of laterally spaced rail apertures with rail pins therebetween, a pair of laterally spaced locking lever apertures with lever pins therethrough and a pair of laterally spaced generally horizontal guide slots with guide pins therethrough;   a pair of normally vertically-oriented locking levers, each locking lever having a central aperture for receiving a lever pin, each locking lever having a lower end with a facing curved follower face and an upper end with an aperture receiving a guide pin and with an arcuate facing interior surface at the interior region thereof;   a spring tending to move the lower ends of the levers inwardly and the upper ends of the levers outwardly; and   a liftable block with generally vertically extending slots adjacent lateral edges thereof receiving the block pins and adapted to allow the raising and lowering of the block between a lower locking deployed orientation and an upward unlocking collapsed orientation, the block also having a central region with cam surfaces adapted to contact the curved surfaces at the lower ends of the levers whereby movement of the block and the cam surfaces upwardly will urge the lower ends of the levers outwardly and the upper ends of the levers inwardly.   
     
     
       3. The hinge as set forth in claim 2 wherein the spring is a coil spring having a central horizontal axis with an exterior surface received within the facing recesses of the levers and with ends extending downwardly into contact with the exterior faces of the levers tending to move the lower ends of the levers inwardly and the upper ends of the levers outwardly.